The present invention relates to a system and method for automatically providing price quotes for different types of barcode printing supply products and more particularly, to such a system that minimizes user input, and is extremely fast, flexible and user friendly.
Known price quoting systems and methods have not been found suitable for automatically providing price quotes for barcode printing supply products such as tags and labels because of the enormous number of characteristics that can distinguish one barcode printing supply product from another. Different combinations of these characteristics affect the pricing of the products in different ways. Further, when a prospective purchaser requests a product with a specific characteristic, that characteristic may limit the options available for other features of the product thus increasing the complexity of providing valid price quotes.
One known cost estimation system specifically designed for barcode printing supply products requires a user to input a value defining each characteristic or feature of the product for which the estimate is requested. An estimated cost of manufacturing the product is taken calculated once only after all of the characteristic defining values are entered. This system is extremely cumbersome. It requires a long time for the user to enter the needed information and once the information is entered, the system takes hours and remembers therefor even days to generate a cost estimate for a single product. In order to change the value defining only a single characteristic, the user has to reenter all of the other information again and then wait for a new cost estimate to be re-calculated. Thus, this system is extremely slow, cumbersome and difficult to use.
In accordance with the present invention, the disadvantages of prior price quoting systems and methods have been overcome. The price quoting system and method of the present invention is specifically designed to provide quotes for barcode printing supply products so that the required user input is minimized, quotes can be provided extremely fast and easily while allowing flexibility in the quotes.
More particularly, in accordance with the present invention, upon the start of the system, a default quote is displayed to the user wherein the default quote depicts a default value for each of a number of variables that define a barcode printing supply product. The system stores for each of one or more product defining variables, a set of allowable options for other product defining variables that are associated with the one variable. When a user inputs a new value for one of these variables for which a set of allowable options is stored, the system automatically changes the displayed default quote to depict any necessary changes in the other variables that are associated with the one variable based upon the associated, stored set of allowable options. This feature drastically minimizes the input required from the user. Further, the user does not have to keep track of restrictions or limitations that are associated with the selection of a value for a particular variable since the system does this automatically.
A further feature of the present invention is such that each time a new value for any variable affecting the price is entered by the user, the system automatically adjusts the price in response thereto and displays the adjusted price. This feature enables a user to immediately see how individual variable values affect the price of a given product.
In accordance with another feature of the present invention, the default quote that is displayed each time a new quote is to be started may be reset or modified by a user. Therefore, the default quote displayed for one user need not be the same as the default quote displayed for another user, the difference in the default quotes being determined by the users themselves according to their own individual needs.
Still another feature of the present invention is the ability to allow a user to deviate from a quoted price for a number of different selectable reasons. Depending upon the reason selected by the user for a requested price deviation, different types of deviations to the quoted price are allowed. This feature allows great flexibility in the price quoting system of the present invention.
These and other advantages and novel features of the present invention, as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof, will be more fully understood from the following description and drawings.